1. Field
The disclosed concept pertains generally to load panels and, more particularly, to load panels including a number of circuit breakers.
2. Background Information
A load panel, such as, for example, a panelboard, load center or circuit breaker panel, holds a plurality of electrical switching apparatus each of which is connected between a power source and a separate load.
Electrical switching apparatus include, for example, circuit switching devices and circuit interrupters, such as circuit breakers, contactors, motor starters and motor controllers. Circuit breakers are generally old and well known in the art. Such circuit breakers are used to protect electrical circuitry from damage due to an overcurrent condition, such as an overload condition or a relatively high level short circuit condition.
It is known to employ a controller, such as for example a computer, for controlling a plurality of circuit breakers in a panelboard. It is also known to employ the controller to monitor the status of the circuit breakers in a panelboard from the status contacts thereof.
It is further known to provide a panelboard for up to a fixed number (e.g., 42) of circuit breakers. In the event that fewer than such fixed number of circuit breakers are required, then a smaller number of circuit breakers are employed in the fixed size panelboard. It is also known to provide a plurality of different panelboard styles for up to a fixed number (e.g., without limitation, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 42) of circuit breakers, with a first circuit breaker typically located in the upper left portion of each panelboard style. However, typically, each of the different panelboard styles requires a different set of connections between the controller and each different fixed number of circuit breakers.
Known methods of assigning addresses for network communication to circuit breakers in load panels include the use and maintenance of routing tables and/or factory programming of an address in non-volatile memory (e.g., without limitation, circuit breaker EEPROM; FRAM) or dual inline package (DIP) switches.
There is room for improvement in load panels for electrical switching apparatus.